Monday, December 11, 2006

Blog Tour: Trackers by Kathryn Mackel.

So today I am here to tell all you good little boys and girls about the book Trackers by Kathryn Mackel. First off, it is a sequel. You really should read Outriders first. It was supposed to be the middle book in a trilogy but the third book got cancelled! C'est tres tragique! That's a little poor french to tell you how I feel.

Now I'm only halfway through the books, so today I'm not going to tell you about how much I love the book (although I do) or the premise of the book (although it's quite orginal) but how much I love the process behind the premise of the book.

Are you still following me here?

See it seems like people try to hard when they come up with plotlines for science fiction books, and it especially seems like people try way too hard when they come up with plotlines for christian science fiction. They run around in circles going "what should I do? how do I make this christian? how?" A great example of trying too hard is the book "The Dream Voyagers" by T. Davis Bunn. Now this would be a great sci-fi book except that the author (while running around in circles going "how? how?") decided that the main character would be from our present day and get to the sci-fi world by a magical park ride.

Why would you do that? It's ridiculous! Now Kathryn Mackel did the smart thing (ie, what I would have done). She first thought "what could the future be like?" and then she thought "what would christians and the church be like in a future like that?" Maybe she didn't, I'm sadly not telepathic. However the point is, the characters seem like normal christians in a very strange setting, which is how I think it should be. No magical park rides needed, because really, do you think there would be a future with no christians at all? That seems like a sad, and completely unbiblical starting point for a book to me.

Okay, tomorrow I'll actually tell you something about the book itself, if you can't wait till then, check one of these guys out: